UW Student Among First Researchers on NASA Flying Observatory

June 15, 2011 — Flying at 41,000 feet elevation aboard the world's largest
airborne astronomical observatory, University of Wyoming student Michael
Lundquist gazes into a region of the universe that has never previously been
observed in such detail. The data he collects will add valuable information in
the scientific quest to determine how and why stars are formed.

A Ph.D. student in the UW Department of Physics and Astronomy,
Lundquist was selected to conduct research aboard NASA's powerful Stratospheric
Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA), a 20-ton telescope mounted in the
rear fuselage of a highly modified Boeing 747SP aircraft. Lundquist was among
the first scientists chosen to fly on SOFIA to record infrared images of dust
and gases in a region where the star-formation process is in its early stages.

The data, still being analyzed, will help scientists answer
questions that cannot be answered by ground-based infrared telescopes.

"You can't do this type of infrared imaging from the ground,
you have to be above the atmosphere in the cold, high elevations that cool the
telescope. This environment reduces the thermal noise, so you can get crystal
clear images that have never been seen before," says Lundquist, whose research
is directed by UW Associate Professor Chip Kobulnicky.

The data collected by UW will be combined with information
from other sources, such as radio telescopes, to help determine why and how stars are formed.

"I'm looking at intermediate mass star-forming regions,
those areas that form stars that are between low-mass stars such as our sun, and the much more
massive stars that can be many times larger than the sun," he says. "SOFIA
provides a new tool that fills a much-needed gap in the wavelengths we can
examine to answer these questions."

He has a great deal of experience in infrared astronomical
observations. Lundquist says the ability to use the university's Wyoming
Infrared Observatory (WIRO) on Jelm Mountain was a major reason he came to UW
after obtaining B.S. degrees in physics and astrophysics at the University of
Minnesota. One of his instructors there was Professor Robert Gehrz, who in the
late 1970s spearheaded efforts to construct WIRO when he was a professor at UW.

When it was completed in 1977, WIRO was the world's largest
aperture infrared telescope. It is still a significant research facility, used
for a wide variety of research projects including the study of the formation of
planets, stars, galaxies and black holes.